“Even in this, you disobey,” he growled.
Every muscle in his body hummed with tension, his heartbeat thundering against my palms. He reached his door, and with a flick of his fingers, it flew open with a rush of power.
Now there was a magical skill I’d like to possess.
He strode over the threshold, and the door snapped shut behind us with a thud that echoed through the quiet room, followed by a snick as he magically locked me inside with him.
He continued across his sitting area and thrust open the door to his bedroom.
I barely caught a glimpse of the masculine décor, the sprawling bed with regal bedding in shades of green and silver, a scattering of personal items, and a pile of papers on a desk in the corner, because in the next instant, he flung me onto his bed. He followed me down, trapping my body beneath his, his palms on either side of my shoulders caging me in place.
“You did not do as I asked,” he snarled, his green eyes sharper than cut jewels.
“Told.”
“Excuse me?” Death lurked in his voice.
“Youtoldme. You didn’t ask me to go to my suite.”
“And you disobeyed.”
The world slowed to shadows whispering across the walls as I stared up at him, my heart hammering in my chest, a raging beast I couldn’t control. I should fear the fury churning in his eyes, but instead, the raw intensity I saw there drew me in. I couldn't resist. Every nerve in my body hummed, aware of nothing but this man looming above me, pressing me down into the soft blankets, his heat a force I couldn't deny.
A part of me screamed that this was wrong, that it was a betrayal of everything Kinart and I had shared. But Kinart was gone, and instead of facing my grief, I was here, pinned beneath a man I barely knew yet couldn’t tear my eyes away from.
What was wrong with me?
I wanted to wrench away, to spit out the lump of dismay lodged in my throat, but my body betrayed me, responding to the press of his muscular frame, his heat seeping through my leathers to embed itself deep below my skin.
A rogue and unwelcome flame burst into life inside my belly, spreading down to my toes and up to my cheeks, a pulse of burning awareness. I should shove him away, scream at him, kick and bite until he released me, but all I could do was meet his intense gaze and wait.
Wait for what?
The fury stamped across his features slowly retreated, replaced by something deeper, more carnal. His eyes darkened,the cut green jewels turning obsidian. A spark lurked there I couldn’t decipher. Each controlled breath he took was a battle, his chest heaving with the restraint he struggled to rein in, and knowing that sent a shiver ripping up my spine.
No, this wasn’t anger anymore. It was something else entirely. Something sensual and mesmerizing.
And I was caught.
Trapped.
My own breathing halted, my lungs bringing the air’s escape to a stop. I was too afraid to disturb whatever edge we teetered on. His weight bored down on me, solid and unyielding, locking me into this moment with him. With a start that felt like a punch, I realized that I didn’t want to escape his grasp.
My chest ached from the pressure of him, yet I didn't fight it.
I should’ve been planning my next move, but my thoughts spun away from me, rooted instead in the heavy blanket of tension that wound tighter around us by the second, threatening to strangle me.
My body hummed with each shift of his weight, every brush of his body against mine hardening the iron cage he’d created around us.
I didn’t want to fight him.
Fuck reason. Fuck all of it.
Right now, all I wanted was to feel something beyond what loss and duty had turned me into. That fire in his black gaze promised relief from the endless ache gnawing on my soul.
Time might as well not exist as I lay there, entranced,vulnerable in a way I’d never been before. He controlled this moment, and I let him. For the first time, I didn’t want to be in charge of what happened next. I didn’t want to be Reyla, a queen by duty, or Reyla, the grieving woman lost in endless sorrow.
What if, for this heartbeat, I could be a new Reyla, one who couldfeel?
